Vassar Today
Man and woman posing with award plaques
Buck Lewis

“Small but Mighty”

Vassar Earns Campus Housing Award
The Association of College and University Housing Officers–International (ACUHO-I) provides resources, support, and programming for more than 17,000 residence life professionals on more than 900 campuses on five continents. For the second year in a row, Vassar has been recognized for outstanding contributions to the organization and the profession.

Current ACUHO-I President Leon McClinton presented the President’s Service Award to the College at the organization’s annual convention this summer in Portland, OR. Luis Inoa, Dean of the College for Residential Life and Wellness, right, accepted the award for the College and collected accolades of his own. Having earned the President’s Individual Award for service to ACUHO-I last year, this year Inoa was the recipient of the James A. Hurd Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions by a professional of color.

Inoa serves as Co-Chair for the Future of the Profession, Supporting Mental Health imperative and is the incoming chair of the Small Colleges and Universities Network. Yetty Marquez-Santana, Vassar’s Director of Residential Education, who also attended the event, serves as ACUHO-I’s Director of Inclusion and Equity.

As he announced the award, McClinton referred to Vassar as “a small but mighty college in the northeast that has become a tried-and-true friend of ACUHO-I. My thanks go out to Vassar for sharing these talented individuals with us and serving as a model for what an engaged member institution looks like.”

“You don’t do this work to earn an award,” Inoa concluded, “but to be recognized by our peers puts Vassar on the map as a small college that does lots of good work.” —Larry Hertz

Renowned Filmmaker and Cinematographer on Success in the Biz

Ellen Kuras in mid conversation
Karl Rabe
Acclaimed filmmaker and cinematographer Ellen Kuras spoke about the groundbreaking work she has done on several major Hollywood motion pictures during a conversation with Professor of Film Mia Mask on September 30 in the Martel Theater. The talk was presented under the auspices of the Capotorto and Mulas Family Distinguished Lecture in Film. Kuras’s work includes her Emmy-award-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary Betrayal and critically acclaimed feature films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blow, and Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and Summer of Sam. Kuras told the audience that her work required commitment and passion. “But [filmmaking] isn’t a competition; it’s a collaboration,” she added. “The person who brings you coffee on the set is just as important as everyone else, and I try to lead by example.” Kuras advised them to “learn your craft, but never feel entitled. It’s a privilege to be there, so treat people with kindness. There’s a timbre in the industry toward bullying, but part of my success has come from treating people kindly. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind.” —Larry Hertz
Robert Brigham professional headshot
Monica Church
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations awarded Robert K. Brigham, Professor of History on the Shirley Ecker Boskey Chair, the Peter L. Hahn Distinguished Service Award at its annual meeting in June. The award recognizes a senior historian who has provided significant contributions to the growth and development of the organization over the course of their career. Honorees demonstrate “a deep commitment to the organization’s mission of promoting and disseminating scholarship in the field of foreign relations broadly defined as well as its distinguished tradition of mentorship, teaching, and public advocacy (especially as it relates to the declassification of government documents).”
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